Conciliation refers to procedures wherein the Conciliation Committee consisting of three commissioners of the Environmental Dispute Coordination Commission intervenes and actively leads negotiations between the parties to have them reach an agreement based on the mutual concession. Procedures are commenced upon an application filed by a party.
Conciliation procedures are not disclosed in order to help clarify the actual status of the dispute and facilitate mutual concession among the parties. This enables all the parties to state their opinions frankly.
The Conciliation Committee coordinates opinions based on the facts and the parties’ allegations and prepares and presents an appropriate and reasonable conciliation proposal, or otherwise endeavors to achieve an agreement. The Committee sometimes recommends the parties to accept its conciliation proposal.
The case is settled when the parties reach an agreement through such conciliation procedures. The agreement thus reached among the parties has the same effect as a composition contract under the Civil Code.
Adjudication refers to procedures wherein the Adjudication Committee consisting of three or five commissioners of the Environmental Dispute Coordination Commission intends to settle a dispute by handing down legal judgments concerning liabilities for damages or the cause-effect relationship as requirements of such liabilities.
Based on an application, the Adjudication Committee holds a disclosed hearing to have the parties state their allegations, examines the evidence, conducts fact-finding investigations, and makes an adjudication based on the facts it found.
These procedures are equivalent to those for civil actions and are characterized by the authority given to the Committee to examine evidence and conduct fact-finding investigations.
If no action is filed on damages related to the adjudication of liability within 30 days of the service of the original written adjudication to the parties, it is deemed that an agreement on damages to the same effect as the adjudication of liability has been reached between the parties.
Adjudication of the cause of damage only shows the Committee’s judgment concerning the cause-effect relationship and does not define the rights and obligations of the parties
When the parties are highly likely to reach an agreement in the process of adjudication procedures or the Adjudication Committee otherwise finds it appropriate, the Committee may transfer the case to conciliation procedures on its authority.
Based on the commission by the court with which a civil action on environmental pollution damage has been filed, the Environmental Dispute Coordination Commission may make an adjudication of the cause of damage.
In the process of conciliation undertaken by a Prefectural Pollution Review Board, etc., if the significant issue is the cause-effect relationship between the relevant offending action and damage and it is difficult to clarify such relationship, the parties may apply and seek adjudication of the cause of damage by the Environmental Dispute Coordination Commission.
Additionally, after conciliation procedures undertaken by a Prefectural Pollution Review Board, etc. are terminated, the parties may seek an adjudication of liability or adjudication of the cause of damage by the Environmental Dispute Coordination Commission.
